NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, has detected significant amounts of a silica mineral called tridymite on the surface of Mars and the discovery has scientists stunned. This surprising find may now force scientists to rethink the volcanic history of Mars, as this new evidence suggests that the planet may have in fact once had explosive volcanoes that led to the presence of the mineral. NASA planetary scientist at Johnson and lead author of the paper, Richard Morris explains “On Earth, tridymite is formed at high temperatures in an explosive process called silicic volcanism. Mount St. Helens, the active volcano in Washington State,...

Next week, the University of Pennsylvania will seek approval for the first human trials of CRISPR, deploying the gene editing tool to treat certain types of cancer. CRISPR, shorthand for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, is a means of editing genomes with greater precision and efficiency than any other methods, by utilizing a naturally occurring bacterial defense mechanism that can be programmed to target specific segments of genetic code and edit the DNA. Though it holds major potential for preventing HIV infection, curing genetic diseases and even creating designer babies, the University of Pennsylvania believes it is ready to trial their CRISPR...

Prof Hawking and Elon Musk warned us this would happen. A real experience from a science fiction nightmare. A robot created by Russian scientists and is designed to work in customer relations by interacting with humans realistically, answering questions and remembering every person it has ever met. The robot named Promobot was being worked on at a research lab but after an engineer accidentally left a perimeter gate open, Promobot walked straight out of the lab’s premises and ended up on the busy road outside. The robot was on the road outside the research lab for more than an hour and police...

Researchers used an incredible new form of functional magnetic resonance imaging pattern analysis which is now being used by computers to predict faces by using data from the memory-centered area of the brain. Hongmi Lee and Brice A. Kuhl from the Kuhl Lab at the University of Oregon studied the area of the brain responsible for processing faces, and stated ‘Recent findings suggest that the contents of memory encoding and retrieval can be decoded from the angular gyrus (ANG), a subregion of posterior lateral parietal cortex. Visually perceived faces were reliably reconstructed from activity patterns.” The researchers go on to explain that by...

Tonight On Dark Thirty Radio Images Taken From fMRI’s Produce Portraits From Thoughts Researchers used an incredible new form of functional magnetic resonance imaging pattern analysis which is now being used by computers to predict faces by using data from the memory-centered area of the brain. Hongmi Lee and Brice A. Kuhl from the Kuhl Lab at the University of Oregon studied the area of the brain responsible for processing faces, and stated ‘Recent findings suggest that the contents of memory encoding and retrieval can be decoded from the angular gyrus (ANG), a subregion of posterior lateral parietal cortex. Visually perceived faces...

Tonight on Dark Thirty Radio Extraterrestrial Response May Not Arrive For Another 1,500 Years A new study suggests that just because we haven’t heard from extraterrestrial life, doesn’t mean we won’t, it will just take a lot more time than previously hoped. Astronomy student Evan Solomonides from Cornell University, due to the sheer size of the Milky Way, it could be up to 1,500 years before we can reasonably expect to hear back from any extraterrestrials who’ve picked up our transmissions from Earth. Although 1,500 years seems like a long wait for a response that may never come, the researchers are quick...

Tonight On Dark Thirty Radio Proof Of TR-3B Spacecraft? A new video, which was submitted to MUFON for review, may be the first actual footage ever recorded of a TR-3B spacecraft. An unnamed witness who claims to have recorded the fabled craft flying over a major highway, said “Triangular UFO hovered over route 45 in Mantua, New Jersey, and turned on its side over the road, and then flew sideways towards Philadelphia” and described the craft as flying extremely slowly, at just around 10 miles per hour. MUFON is still investigating the new footage. Source: Express.Co.UK UFO Spotted Over Turkey Numerous sighting...

A new video uploaded to YouTube by Tyler Glockner, from Secure Team, points out what he claims are “anomalous structures” found in pictures of Mars. The UFO hunter, says that he found a glowing light formation hidden in crater on Red Planet, and believes that the bizarre illuminations could represent an alien craft or part of a hidden object of alien origin. Glockner said “We have captured a lot of anomalous structures on Mars, however this would be the first time that we’ve actually seen lights on Mars. This could be a craft of some sort, this could be objects down in the...

NASA has agreed to pay as much as $100,000 to Made in Space to conduct a feasibility study on the concept of turning asteroids into spacecraft. Made in Space is the company that has put two 3D printers on the International Space Station to serve the needs of NASA, and the company’s next goal is to pioneer the manufacturing of materials in space, using resources in space. Several companies, including Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, have talked about developing probes to travel to asteroids, surveying the asteroids for resources including water ice and precious metals, and bringing those materials back to the...

Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest airport for international travel, and base of the long-haul carrier Emirates, closed for over an hour after a drone flew into its airspace. The airport says the closure disrupted flights for 69 minutes on Saturday and it is not the first time this sort of attack has hit. In Poland, authorities at Warsaw’s international airport say they had to suspend all landings briefly because of two unauthorized drones flying in the area where planes approach for landing. Poland’s regulations forbid flying drones within a 12-mile radius from airports, although drones have been spotted on some previous occasions near...

The concept of Mechs, giant, man-carrying robot suits, has been around for decades, but now researchers are in the development stages of making this a reality. Activelink, a company that develops new ways to link people and machines by using Power assist technology, has produced a prototype exoskeleton called the Assist Suit AWN-03, which is being developed as a solution to labor shortages that might arise due to an ageing population, since hoists and forklifts are not suitable for every situation. “There are some particular fields that cannot be mechanized, and industrial workers will still need to carry heavy objects by themselves,” said...

Author of “Superintelligence,” Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford and founder of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies says that “when A.I. teaches itself how to learn without supervision, it will be able to learn so fast that it would overrule humanity and take over.”, a concept first coined as ‘Singularity’ by mathematician Stanislaw Ulam 1958. Now, the scientists who build the A.I. algorithms need to install an “interruption policy” that would “forcibly change the behavior of the agent itself.” This signal would convince the machine, that at this point would be ignoring human commands, that it should stop and...

In the event of a zombie apocalypse, it’s imperative that you have a plan. If you’re influenced by the movies, then you might be inclined to take your chances and head for the nearest pub or shopping mall in order to outwit a growing horde of bloodthirsty zombies. Your average shopping mall is equipped with all […]

Nobody has ever put a lander on the far side of the Moon before, but China is well on its way to being the first. Over the weekend, the country launched a craft called Queqiao – a satellite that will orbit the Moon to relay messages from the yet-to-be-launched lander, Chang’e-4. The Moon is tidally […]

It only lasted for a savage, fleeting instant, but for 8 intense seconds last week an eagle, a fox, and a rabbit flew across the sky as one. In an incredibly rare scene, photographers have captured the moment a bald eagle swooped down upon a young red fox clutching a rabbit, and in its whirlwind […]

There is something special and awe-inspiring about watching new land form. This is what is now happening in Hawai’i as its Kīlauea volcano erupts. Lava is reaching the ocean and building land while producing spectacular plumes of steam. These eruptions are hugely important for the creation of new land. But they are also dangerous. Where […]

Calling all citizen scientists! A project looking for those dying, exploding stars called supernovae out in deep space is also searching for volunteers to help in the work, and you can get real science credit for it along the way – even if you’ve never done a second of star-gazing before. Astronomers from the Australian National […]

When Jean-Lou Justine received the first photograph of a giant worm with a head like a shovel, the biologist was astounded. Hammerhead flatworms, which grow to a foot or more in length, do not belong in European vegetable gardens. “We do not have that in France,” said Justine, a professor at the National Museum of […]

Astronauts go through many physiological changes during their time in spaceflight, including lower muscle mass and slower muscle development. Similar symptoms can occur in the muscles of people on Earth’s surface, too. In fact, it could affect everyone to some extent later in life. “Age-related skeletal muscle disorders, such as sarcopenia, are becoming a greater […]

Exposure to early life trauma can lead to poor physical and mental health in some individuals, which can be passed on to their children. Studies in mice show that at least some of the effects of stress can be transmitted to offspring via environmentally-induced changes in sperm miRNA levels. A new epigenetics study raises the […]

Most renderings and reconstructions of pterodactyls and other extinct flying reptiles show a flight pose much like that of bats, which fly with their hind limbs splayed wide apart. But a new method for inferring how ancient animals might have moved their joints suggests that pterosaurs probably couldn’t strike that pose. “Most of the work […]

Corals growing in high-latitude reefs in Western Australia can regulate their internal chemistry to promote growth under cooler temperatures, according to new research at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at The University of Western Australia. The study, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that ocean warming may […]